psu or gpu?

[ganon11000]

that fan us awful. after being open for a while it's running at 30-38oC (PSU Overheat causing cut offs?)

[mikeo01]

A overheating PSU can cause immediate shutdowns to protect the components inside. But also an overheated PSU lowers it's efficiency rating, basically it's going to be working harder to try and output the required current/amps.

The HD3870 is quite a hungry card. Going by these specifications it states a minimum PSU of 450w and 28amps on the rails for operation.


So with that in mind it may be pushing your PSU over the top now and again causing OCP to flag up


So heat may be tipping it over the edge which could explain the sudden shutdowns now and again

[ganon11000]

A overheating PSU can cause immediate shutdowns to protect the components inside. But also an overheated PSU lowers it's efficiency rating, basically it's going to be working harder to try and output the required current/amps.

The HD3870 is quite a hungry card. Going by these specifications it states a minimum PSU of 450w and 28amps on the rails for operation.


So with that in mind it may be pushing your PSU over the top now and again causing OCP to flag up


So heat may be tipping it over the edge which could explain the sudden shutdowns now and again

well I've used a multi metre and can't find the 2nd rail its almost as if it's single rail!?!(every port goes down to the same level with furmark and linx etc..)

as for cooling, who do good 80mm fans?

[mikeo01]

That's odd, according to the specs it has two rails providing 17A each.

As for cooling, 80mm fans are very small and tend to push very little air regardless of manufacturer. They need to run very quite to get good airflow such as Deltas, but they're very loud.

However I can see you have side vents that look like they can take some 80mm fans, which could help.

Taking out the PCI plates can help too

[unholy_war]

i had similar problem and the PSU was faulty

[ganon11000]

ok, I'll give those suggestions a shot tomorrow
BTW this PSU has been flawless until this GPU showed up, so no reason to think it's faulty!

I'll remove the PCI covers now and see if I can wire in a fan (as non of them have connectors - old psu fans)

[ganon11000]

I'll also add a fan in the PCI-E bay (have one in my gaming PC - runs under 50oC most of the time!)

[Tom94]

ok, I'll give those suggestions a shot tomorrow
BTW this PSU has been flawless until this GPU showed up, so no reason to think it's faulty!

I'll remove the PCI covers now and see if I can wire in a fan (as non of them have connectors - old psu fans)

Have you tried using another graphics card? If it started to happen after you added the card then it might be worth a try.

I remember someone mentioned about trying a different pci-e connector or the molex adaptor. I would give that a try as i have heard of faulty connectors causing problems.

I hope you manage to sort out this problem

[ganon11000]

Have you tried using another graphics card? If it started to happen after you added the card then it might be worth a try.

I remember someone mentioned about trying a different pci-e connector or the molex adaptor. I would give that a try as i have heard of faulty connectors causing problems.

I hope you manage to sort out this problem

This PSU was flawless with the PC in my profile so I know it is a power draw / heat issue and all indicators point to heat since it got to 50+oC

[Pob255]

Problem is that the system in your profile is probably pulling less power.

What it is sounding like is that it's the psu age, one of the dangers of 2nd hand is you don't know what sort of conditions a thing has been put through.

One thing about "multi-rail" psu's, they are not, multi-rail can mean a few different things; ocp done off multiple points, Schottky diodes or Mosfets in parallel rather than serial, even just separate solder points on the pcb.

Heat could well be effecting your psu, it's not just the efficiency that gets effected the ability to output can also get effected.
Good thing here is that you got a good psu, so protection is working and is shutting itself off rather than feeding bad voltages and/or current into the pc.

A different case, with better air flow might be a good step.

[ganon11000]

Problem is that the system in your profile is probably pulling less power.

What it is sounding like is that it's the psu age, one of the dangers of 2nd hand is you don't know what sort of conditions a thing has been put through.

One thing about "multi-rail" psu's, they are not, multi-rail can mean a few different things; ocp done off multiple points, Schottky diodes or Mosfets in parallel rather than serial, even just separate solder points on the pcb.

Heat could well be effecting your psu, it's not just the efficiency that gets effected the ability to output can also get effected.
Good thing here is that you got a good psu, so protection is working and is shutting itself off rather than feeding bad voltages and/or current into the pc.

A different case, with better air flow might be a good step.

After adding more fans I'm getting 47oC max instead of 57oC which is a good improvement!

But I agree .... I'm going to have to move it back to the other pc...........